The Mechanist
by Mccrapper
Summary: What if the Lone Wanderer was killed in the panic that followed James' departure from the Vault? Who would protect the Capital Wasteland? Read on to find out!
1. Andale

The Mechanist

Author: Mccrapper

Chapter 1: Andale

Note: The Mechanist featured in this fic is a different character than the one featured in fallout 3. when I am speaking about _that_ Mechanist I will make an effort to point out that I'm speaking about that one. Also, this story begins just after James has left the vault, however the Lone Wanderer was murdered by the Overseer's thugs before she could escape.

**When you see the Bold words in the story it means The Mechanist is thinking **and _when it's in Italics it's a flashback. _(thanks for the idea, Ballott.)

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**Something doesn't seem right,** though The Mechanist. **There is something definitely wrong here. **He was walking through the wasteland when he had stumbled across a few buildings that weren't just piles of rubble. As if that wasn't strange enough, they looked lived in. He hadn't heard of any settlement out here, and there wasn't enough resources nearby for it to be a hermit, so whoever lived here must trade with the caravans, but then again, none of the caravans came out this way. He pulled out his gauss rifle and crept silently up to one of the houses, not an easy feat when you're wearing T-51 b power armor, but the Mechanist managed. He looked through a crack in the boards that blocked the windows, and saw a father and son sitting at a dinner table while the mother served them each a huge slab of meat pie. They were all wearing pre-war clothes, and it reminded him of Tenpenny Tower.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he heard someone whisper behind him. He spun around and pointed his rifle at an old man in a sweater vest.

"Don't shoot, I'm only trying to warn you! It isn't safe here, you must go!"

"You had better start talking before I start shooting, old man."

"The people here in Andale are wicked! You need to get out of here before they catch you!"

"What are you talking about? It's just a regular family in there. Besides, I know how to take care of myself, I've dealt with worse."

"Don't say I didn't warn you." said the old man as he walked off towards one of the houses, muttering to himself. **Fuckin' psycho.** thought The Mechanist as he walked up to the front door and knocked on it. A woman in a business suit opened the door and smiled.

"Oh, a visitor! What can I do you for, mister...?"

"You can call me The Mechanist. I work with the trade caravans from Canterbury Commons, trying to keep the wasteland safe and well supplied. I didn't know there was a settlement here, otherwise we would have came by a long time ago. Do you have any immediate need for medicine or food?"

"Oh, no thank you. We have all the food we could ever want in Andale. In fact, why don't you stay for supper?"

"No, I actually have other matters to attend to tonight. I can tell the traders there's a settlement here, if you'd like."

"Yes, more people around these parts has been something my husband has wanted for a while now,"

**That's a weird thing to say. **he thought. "In fact, why don't I introduce you to my husband, I'm sure he'd love to... meet you."

Something about the way she paused before she said meet disturbed him. He was beginning to think that Andale was hiding something. Maybe the old man was right.

"No, I really gotta go, it was nice talking to you."

* * *

"Goodbye, then." she looked disappointed, even angry as she said it. She closed the door, and he walked up the street. Time to pay that old man a visit.

"Look, I can't tell you, all you need to know is that it isn't safe here."

"My patience is wearing thin, old man."

"I have a name, you know."

"Oh yeah? And what is it?'

"Theodore Harris."

"Whatever. I saw a kid in one of the houses. If it isn't safe here, I need to know if he's in danger."

"No, he's not. At least, not physically."

"What do you mean not physically."

"Morally. He's in danger morally. Terrible things happen in that shed, and down in that basement. Once he comes of age, they'll get him in on it, too.

"Get him in on what? I need to know what I'm up against if I'm going to help him. How many people live here?"

"Six, not including myself. Two of them are children."

* * *

"Alright, I guess you aren't going to be much help beyond that, but I'll take what I can get. Thanks, Teddy"

**Looks like I'm going to have to take what's her face up on her dinner offer. I need to know what's wrong so I can help**. He was sitting at a campfire he had built in one of the destroyed houses on the outskirts of Andale, where the flames couldn't be seen by any of the resident's houses. **But I can't suddenly show up after refusing. I suppose I could use the fake injury routine. If it works for raiders, it can work for me. **He checked his old messenger bag for a blood pack; he usually carried one for situations just like this. After a few seconds of sifting through assorted junk, he found a half empty blood pack. He took out a rusty old combat knife and removed the left arm segment of his power armor and punched an ugly hole in it with the knife, but he made sure it was small enough to be easily repairable. He slipped the armor back on and dumped the contents of the blood packet onto his arm, making it look like he'd been shot. He kicked dust onto the fire and began to walk towards the house of the woman, moaning loudly so that anyone nearby would know he was hurt. He opened the door and fell in. Just like you would think, 300 pounds of man and armor falling to the ground makes an awful racket. Two men holding guns ran in from the kitchen, and so did the woman he had talked to before.

"Don't shoot him, Bill! He's The Mechanic! The one I told you about!"

**The Mechanic?! Is it really that hard to remember **_**Mechanist**_**? **He thought with a flash of anger

"I need a place to stay for awhile. I was shot by a mercenary."

"Shucks, you scared us! We almost shot you! Of course you can stay here!" One of the men, wearing a plaid shirt reached out his hand and helped him up, while the other guy reached for his gauss rifle. The Mechanist scrambled up before he could grab the gun, wincing at the fake pain in his arm to add effect. The two men exchanged a short look of anger. They wanted him unarmed.

"Well, you're to late for supper, we were just about to go to bed."said one of the men.

"And I was just about to go home," said the other man, the one with the plaid shirt "Say, why don't you spend the night at my house, the basement is quite comfortable."

**I'm sure it is, asshole. I'm sure it is.**

"Sorry, mister, we don't allow guns in the house." said the man with the plaid shirt, who's name turned out to be Jack Smith. He had led The Mechanist over to his house and introduced him to his family. They seemed like agreeable people, something that The Mechanist found deeply disturbing.

"What about that pistol on your hip, Jack?" asked The Mechanist in a kind of offhand way.

"Well, I plum forgot about that!" he said with an air of good humour, but not before his eyes betrayed a second of cold anger. He walked outside and placed the pistol on a cinderblock outside the door. Now that he was unarmed, The Mechanist felt no qualms about relinquishing his own gun, and he propped it up outside the door. Using a sleight of hand maneuver, he took his combat knife out of his bag and slipped it into the gap between the right calf plate of his armor and the recon armor underneath.

"Well, I'll show you where you'll be bedding down for tonight, Mechanic," said Jack cheerfully, but he was noticeably anxious. "It's right through here, in the basement." He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked a door that led off from the kitchen. H e motioned for The Mechanist to go first down the dark stairwell. **Yeah, I go first so you can stab me in the lung so I can't scream. Fucker. **It was too dark to see the bottom, but he went ahead anyway. He listened to the steps of Jack behind him, waiting until they stopped. But it wasn't Jack's feet that stopped, it was his. They had a veritable torture chamber in their basement, and everything smelled of the sickly-sweet scent of blood.

"A man has to feed his family, mister. Why, if you can't do that, you're no kind of a man at all." The Mechanist turned to see Jack blocking the stairs, revving up a Ripper that was rusted from being constantly exposed to blood.

"You're fucking sick. These are... were... people!" shouted The Mechanist as he motioned to the mangled corpses and organs lying on butcher blocks in the middle of the dungeon.

"Quiet down, my boy is trying to sleep." hissed Jack, with none of his usual good humour. He was all business now.

"Well, It's good to see you're looking out for him." said The Mechanist sarcastically as he pulled out his knife.

"You may have your fancy armor, but this puppy'll open you up like a tin can!" spat Jack as he dashed towards The Mechanist. The Mechanist slashed out towards his face, leaving a deep gash from cheekbone to cheekbone, cutting through the cartilage of the man's nose.

"GYAAA!" he screamed as he fell to the ground clutching at his mangled face, the dropped Ripper throwing up sparks as it ground against the concrete floor. He heard footsteps overhead, and muffled shouting. Jack's wife and his neighbor burst through the door and ran down the stairs, both of them weilding sawed-off shotguns. Before they could fire, The Mechanist through the knife right into the man's throat, and dropped to one knee to pick up the Ripper. He was lucky he ducked when he did, because Linda fired at what would have been head height had he not ducked. The buckshot flew above his head and pierced jagged holes into the refrigerator behind him. He didn't hesitate. He jumped up and ran towards her, grinding the Ripper into her stomach. Blood spewed everywhere, and she shrieked in his ear. She fell to the ground, and he let the Ripper fall with her, the chain still tearing at her intestines. He bent over and retrieved his knife from the dead man's neck, and rounded on Jack, who had crawled into a corner and lay sobbing amongst the bloody bones. The Mechanist grabbed him underneath the armpits and roughly picked him up.

"Death isn't so noble when _your _family is on the receiving end, is it?" he shouted into the man's blood caked face.

"I just wa-wa-wanted my family to be sa-safe..." moaned Jack.

"You are nothing but fucking swine!" shouted The Mechanist. He threw the crying man to the ground and kicked him in the face as hard as he could. He was dead before his face even finished caving in.

* * *

The Mechanist calmly walked upstairs, and broke the knob off the door behind him. The kid didn't need to see what was down there. He left the house and retrieved his rifle. A bullet zinged past his head. **Shit, the other guy's wife! **He slung his rifle off his shoulder and looked around carefully. He spotted her on top of one of the houses. He shot off one round, the 2mm bullet hit her right in the chest and she fell backwards off of the roof.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" screamed Harris as he ran down the road towards The Mechanist. He leveled his gauss rifle, taking aim for the man's head, but he stopped. **He warned me about them. Wouldn't say what exactly was wrong, but he did warn me none the less. **He shouldered his rifle and opted instead to punch him in the stomach when he came close enough.

"You knew, all along! Why didn't you do anything?!"

Theodore managed to spit out one word between gasping for air. "...Family..."

"You were _part_ of it?!" asked The Mechanist incredulously

"Years ago, yes. Wa-What about the children?"

"They're fine. I suggest you go collect them before they see what happened in that basement."

"Thank you. They were my family, and part of me hates you for killing them. But it needed to be done, for the children's sake. They need a fresh start."

"Take good care of them. I suggest you make your way to one of the larger settlements, because you can't stay here. Raiders will tear your ass apart, and I'll be god damned if I'm going to change the trader routes to make sure some old ex-cannibal gets supplies."

"I suppose I deserved that. So long... er.. I didn't catch your name."

"Call me The Mechanist."


	2. Raiders

The Mechanist

Author: Mccrapper

Chapter 2: Raiders

Note: The Mechanist featured in this fic is a different character than the one featured in fallout 3. when I am speaking about _that_ Mechanist I will make an effort to point out that I'm speaking about that one. Also, this story begins just after James has left the vault, however the Lone Wanderer was murdered by the Overseer's thugs before she could escape.

Please review!

**When you see the Bold words in the story it means The Mechanist is thinking **and _when it's in Italics it's a flashback. _(thanks for the idea, Ballott.)

-

* * *

"Yeah, I knew there was a settlement down that way, but I guess I was more preoccupied with them fellas just north of here," The scavenger leaned back in his chair and took a deep drag from his cigarette."Bastards cause a hell of a lot of problems around here, but they don't fuck with me."

The Mechanist had walked north along the road out of Andale for awhile and had met a scruffy scavenger who went by the name of Willy living in a small chunk of a ruined building, who invited him to come sit around his fire. The Mechanist found him agreeable, and accepted his offer.

"A word of advice; stay away from that place, some bad shit went down there, and dead bodies attract Mole Rats by the thousands."

Willy leaned forward in his chair with a look of concern, even fear. "Bodies, you say? That wouldn't be your doing, would it?"

"Yeah, I did it, but they had it coming. It was a small clan of very well-fed cannibals."said The Mechanist as he stoked the fire viciously.

"Cannibals, eh? I'm sure they got a fair number of them up in Fairfax. It's a depraved place, built on drugs, blood and sex," the scavenger looked up fondly at the machine gun turret mounted in the ceiling of his little shack, "but this little baby here keeps 'em away from me and my dog, and that's all I need."

The Mechanist stood up and rustled in his bag for some money. He tossed ten caps towards Willy.

"Hey, you don't owe me nothing. I may not have much food, but I'm happy to share it with friendly folk. God knows we need more like you in this world." He moved to hand the money back, but The Mechanist pushed his hand away.

"Shit isn't free, Willy. We're both businessmen, and let me tell you, you won't get anywhere handing out freebies. Take the money," He grabbed his rifle and put his helmet back on. "Now, about Fairfax. What's going on over there? It sounds like you got yourself a raider camp."

Willy grabbed The Mechanist by the wrist, with a a grave look on his face. "It's bigger than any camp I ever seen. There has to be at least thirty raiders there. Don't try and be a hero, you'll only get yourself shot."

* * *

"I've handled raiders before. Besides, I have a fancy-ass gun, and very good aim. They won't know what hit 'em." And with that, The Mechanist walked out of the small shack towards the ruins of Fairfax.

He walked along as silently as he could, straining his ears to hear any sounds that stood out against the morose wind that blew across the Wastes. He had already seen smoke from a campfire off in the distance, and he was sure that was where Fairfax was, but he didn't know if they had sentries. Then he heard what was probably the last sound he would have expected to hear: mooing. He stopped dead in his tracks and crouched down behind a rock. The gray colour of his armor blended in perfectly with the assorted rock and ruin of the Wasteland, he knew that, so chances are that nobody saw him, especially in the dark. He peeked over the rock and looked through the scope of his rifle, trying to see if it was just a wild Brahmin, or if it was a herd, maybe tended by the raiders, although that seemed unlikely. What he saw instead was a single Brahmin piled high with assorted junk, rags and sundries, all tied across it's powerful shoulders. Standing next to the beast was a young blonde woman holding a sub-machine gun in one hand and a cigarette in another. And standing next to _her _was none other than Crazy Wolfgang, one of the traders and a close friend of The Mechanist. **Small world, I guess. I should warn him about the raiders.** He jumped over the rock and ran down to where the caravan was resting. The young woman dropped her cigarette on the ground and opened fire, not realizing who she was shooting at. The Mechanist dove out of the way of the way and the bullets flew over him. He aimed just above her head and fired his Gauss Rifle. The magnetized round flew over her, giving a distinctly electric boom as it did so. She stopped firing, simply aiming her weapon at his face. He returned the favour. Wolfgang was the one to break the tension.

"Mechanist! It's been to long!" He ran between the two, not realizing that he now had two very deadly weapons aimed right at his head. The Mechanist lowered his rifle and heartily shook Wolfgang's hand.

"That's some guard you got there, Crazy. She nearly blew my head off." said The Mechanist with a chuckle

The blonde woman was not amused. "And you nearly blew off mine. Wolfgang, who the hell is this?"

"Why, he's The Mechanist! Best shot in all of the Capital Wasteland, and sworn defender of the Canterbury Commons Caravan! Believe me, Lily. The only reason he didn't _actually_ blow your head off your shoulders, was because he didn't want to. It was a warning shot."

The guard grunted. "Whatever. We should get moving, Wolfgang. Those Raiders aren't going to bribe themselves."

"Ah, yes. An unfortunate part of our job, having to deal with scum like these raiders, or the slavers up in Paradise Falls." Crazy Wolfgang sighed.

"They actually let you pass through with out trying to murder you?" asked The Mechanist incredulously.

Wolfgang laughed."Although this may come as a surprise to one such as yourself, people can be bargained and reasoned with. Not all problems come down to who shoots first."

"I suppose they ask for huge amounts of booze as payment, right?"

"Nope, chems are what keeps them complacent. The good doctor Hoff already rolled through here and bribed them with enough chems to let all of us pass through. At least, that is what usually happens, unless something has gone horribly, horribly wrong."

"Do you mind if I stick around until you get back to Canterbury?"

"Not at all! Say, what brings you this far south, anyway?"

"I was down in the old Arlington public library, looking for some books for Ernest. He says he wants to start doing a mail trade along you guys' trade route, and he figured that if we could sell books, too, it might improve literacy in the Wastes, which would lead to more letters, and more money for the Caravan. But the library is definitely not going to be of any use, The Brotherhood of Steel have some kind of an operation going on down there. 'No civilians allowed' apparently."

"Yeah, we passed by a group of them heading that way from The Citadel. They were a bunch of them wearing robes, too. I figured they only wore Power Armor, although none of it is nearly as nice as that stuff you got there. Crow is _still _trying to scheme up a way to take that off your hands."

The guard cleared her throat loudly. "We really should get going, otherwise Moira is going to try to make you drop your prices for being late."

"Ah, yes. She is definitely a sly one. Well, we had better get going."

* * *

"What do you mean, Hoff didn't pay?" Crazy Wolfgang asked in exasperation.

"I mean, he came through here and didn't give us any fucking chems!" The raider standing in front of the caravan spoke with a thick voice, a voice that just seemed to drip with stupidity.

"Do you expect us to believe that," yelled Wolfgang, "You let him roll through without paying? Trying to con us out of more chems won't work, you know!"

"Alright, alright,, so he payed, that doesn't change anything. We want more. There's been a... whatcha callit... a regime change around here! We ain't gonna let you pass so easily now!" He seemed to be developing a headache from all this talking, and his temper was beginning to show.

Lily, the caravan guard, had reached the end of her very short rope. She unholstered her sub-machine gun and poked the barrel roughly into the man's chest.

"Look, asshole. The deal was, we give you drugs, and you let us go on our merry little way. Now you're fucking up the system, and we don't feel so merry. Maybe now me my associates are going to have to shoot all of you miserable punks." she accentuated her statement by giving her a gun a sharp twist, grinding it painfully into the mans naked chest. The raider was unaffected by her speech or her little maneuver with the gun.

"I'd like to see you try, lady. Right now we got a sniper aiming right at your head. If I give the signal, your head is gonna have more holes in it than a... um... something with a lotta holes in it!"

Lily backed down. The Mechanist, however, didn't. He had already located the sniper, on top of a building to their left. As soon as lily dropped her gun, The Mechanist swung his rifle off his shoulder and took aim for the sniper. He fired a shot before anyone even knew what was going on. The raider on top of the building gave a shriek as the round caught him in the chest, and he fell backwards. The Mechanist then rounded on the man blocking their path and bashed him in the face with the butt of his gun. The raider's nose broke with a sickening crunch and he collapsed in a heap at their feet.

"C'mon, let's get the fuck out of here!" yelled The Mechanist. Wolfgang gave the Brahmin a prod with his whip, and the whole caravan ran down the street. Raiders began pouring out of the buildings that surrounded the road. Lily emptied a clip into the mob on their left as they ran, bullets impacting into the raiders as they fell, one by one. The Mechanist dumped the empty micro fusion battery out of the rifle and loaded a new one as they ran. He took aim and fired at the group ahead of them, the 2mm round passed clean through one raider's head, and got the man standing behind him between the eyes. Bullets zinged past their heads, the raiders weren't aiming so well, thanks to Doc Hoff's shipment of chems. The brahmin charged right through the group who blocked the road out of Fairfax, and the rest of the caravan ran through the hole it had made, trampling the bodies of unconscious raiders as they did so.

* * *

"Someone is gonna have to go back there and clean up that mess, because we left a lot of them alive, and they won't be so happy next time they see us."said Lily, taking a deep drag, then tilting her head back and blowing a smoke ring. They were camping along the side of the road, and planned on hitting Megaton around 9:00 in the morning. They could actually see it from where they were camping, but they had to take a roundabout way along the old road, because the heavy pack brahmin needed the stability of the concrete road to prevent it from falling over.

"I'll see if anyone in Megaton will help when we get there. Billy Creel will chip in, I'm sure."

Wolfgang sighed. "I doubt it. Everyone in Megaton is much more hostile these days."

"That's weird. I haven't been up this way in months, though. How's Megaton doing?"

Lily laughed and lit a fresh cigarette. "They're one of the most prosperous cities in the wastes, but they try damned hard to hide it. They hardly even let visitors in any more, and not at all if that sheriff of there's isn't around to give them the third degree."

"That's really strange. Lucas Simms is a Regulator, for Christ sakes. He must know how bad it is out here." said The Mechanist, as he casted a disapproving glance towards the dark shape that Megaton cut into the gray night sky.

"Yes, well, he does have to look after his people," said Crazy Wolfgang with a shrug of his shoulders. "After all, the raiders are getting more and more desperate as pre-war supplies run out."

"Yeah, and we just led a fucking army of them right to his doorstep. Let's get the hell outta here!" hissed Lily as she stood up and kicked dirt into the fire. The Mechanist looked back the way they had came and saw a gang of about twenty raiders walking down the road that led out of Fairfax. **Shit, they must have followed our tracks!** Thought The Mechanist as he stood up and hastily checked to see if his Gauss Rifle was loaded. He flicked the safety off and aimed towards the raiders, who hadn't seen their fire.

"Don't shoot them, Mechanist! We can make it to Megaton if we cut across the wasteland." whispered Wolfgang in his ear

"What about the brahmin?"

"It knows the route, it'll be in Megaton by tomorrow. Besides, even if the raiders do catch it, theyll bring it with them, and we plan on attacking them anyway, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose." He slung his rifle over his shoulder and started running towards Megaton, trying not to make any noise.

* * *

They reached Megaton within twenty minutes, but were startled to find that they had closed the gate, something that they only used to do when they were being attacked.

"Howdy, partner. Welcome to Megaton." said a Protectron standing near the city gate. The Mechanist ignored him, instead yelling up at the catwalk above the cities gates.

"Hey, Stockholm! Open the gate! I know you're up there!"

The gates, made of old airplane wings and powered by a rusty jet engine, roared to life and slid upwards with a horrible metal-on-metal sound. The caravan ran inside and opened the door to the eclectic city, finding Lucas Simms waiting for them inside.

"What the hell are you traders doing in my city at this hour? Not to mention, you're late." said Simms, brandishing an old Chinese Norinco assault rifle.

"Cut the crap, Lucas. There is a group of raiders coming through this way that may or may not want us dead. We need your help." said The Mechanist.

"You brought raiders _here_? Get the fuck out of my city, before I shoot your sorry ass."

Lily took a threatening step forward and threw her cigarette to the ground. "Look you sorry piece of shit, it would be real easy to take you fuckers off the route. The only reason we come through that raider camp is to trade with you. Now are you gonna help us, or what?"

"Missy, if there's one thing I can't stand, it's piss-pot wastelanders like yourselves, who come rolling into _my_ city, and try to tell me how it is. I make the fucking rules around here, not you. Now, if you want to take us of your route, you be my guest, cause were your biggest customers, after Rivet City, and I know that old Roe up in Canterbury won't like losing our business, greedy fucker that he is."

The Mechanist aimed his rifle at Simms' face, clicking off the safety as he did so.

"You talk an awful lot of shit for someone who's only real problem is making sure he has enough fucking squirrel meat to shove down his face, and that people listen to you, and not Colin Moriarty up there, and you can't even do that right."

Simms lowered his gun, and heaved a sigh. "You're right, you know. It's hard to realize how bad it is out there when we have it so good in _here_. It's just that it all seems to be falling apart around here lately. Yeah, we'll help you, but I want a discount on food, plus a free restock on ammo that we're gonna waste on these fuckers."

Wolfgang heaved a sigh of relief. "Sounds fair. I'll leave a note for Lucky."

Lily casually lit another cigarette. "Let's shoot these fuckers dead."

* * *

"How the hell did you get through there, anyway?" asked Stockholm as they walked through the wasteland towards where the raiders were. Lucas Simms had let them take Stockholm, Billy Creel and Jericho with them.

"We honestly just shot our way through. It was just luck that stopped us from getting our asses shot." said Lily with a small chuckle

Billy Creel stuck his had up, indicating for them to quiet down. "We're coming up on them now, quiet down guys."

They crept up towards a small hill that overlooked the road. They could see the raiders were having a heated argument.

"I'm going in for a closer look, stay back here." Billy crept backwards and circled around the hill, then hid behind a rock near the road. From there, he could hear everything they were saying.

"I'm telling ya, they didn't keep following the road! They musta seen us coming, or something. You can see for a mile up ahead, and there ain't shit up there cept some mole rats."

The other raider who was much bigger than the first one, shoved him to the ground and shot him in the face with a rusty .32 revolver.

"I'm in charge! Anyone who wants to disagree with me will end up like him, alright?"

The other raiders eagerly nodded their agreement.

"Now, I think they might have left the road at some point, probably seen us coming, so I say we fan out and look for 'em."

The other raiders were quick to praise him, ignoring the fact that he simply regurgitated what the dead man had said.

"Good thinking, boss!"

"Yeah, it's a good thing you're in charge!"

"Wow! Strong _and _smart!"

"And handsome!"

"Yeah, and handsome!"

The leader smiled thickly, then spotted the group up on the hill.

"Hey! They're over there! Get 'em!"

Billy Creel sprung up from behind the rock and shot two of the raiders in the back as he retreated back towards the group. The Mechanist and Stockholm were alternating their shots, one would snipe while the other reloaded, and vice-versa. Lily was spraying fire randomly into the raiders, and causing some serious damage while doing so. The raiders had weapons that weren't in the best shape, and they lost accuracy with distance, so tried and rush the traders and settlers, who had the high ground. It was a complete slaughter, with the only injury on the trader's side being Jericho, who was shot in the right bicep. Wolfgang fished out some tweezers and removed the bullet, and had the wound stitched up in no time. They walked down towards the raiders, and began rifling through the bodies to find anything of value. Finding nothing, they started walking back to Megaton, joking and laughing the whole way.

* * *

The first thing he realized when he woke up was that he was surrounded by people looking down at him. He could hear them, talking in loud voices, but he could not understand what they were saying. He blinked his eyes, and then they were gone. But he could still hear them. They were all laughing about something. And then he saw the sparks, and they burned his face as they fell inside his helmet. He blinked again, and the sparks disappeared. He was scared, and tried to take off the helmet, but it would not budge. What was it again? Eyeboteyeboteyebot. Why wouldn't it come off? Weldedweldedwelded. He started to cry. It was hot in the armor, but he couldn't take it off. The sparks had made sure of that. He sat up, and the pistons in the Power Armor gave a slight hiss as he did so. There was a dog sniffing at his feet. It looked friendly enough. But maybe it was like _they're _dog. He shot his large hand out and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck. It let out a yelp, but he ignored it. He stood up, easily holding the animal up with one hand. It was thrashing now, trying to bite him. Just like _that _dog. He grabbed its bottom jaw with his hand and roughly pulled down. The creature gave a final, bloody gurgle and died.

"What the fuck did you just do to my dog, man?"

He turned around to see a young man with a shotgun not six feet away from him. He reached out and grabbed the shotgun, wrenching it from the man's grip. How does this work? Dunnodunnodunno. He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders and bashed the man's face in with the butt of the gun. Where should we go now? Homehomehome.


End file.
